Mountain Stage Bringing a Caravan of Americana

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Mountain Stage rocks radio. More specifically, the long-running, public broadcasting radio show features live American roots music taped before an audience.
Mountain Stage returns to the Paramount Center for the Arts in Bristol, Tenn., on Aug. 16 for its latest installment.
Featuring the blues of the Robert Cray Band, Texas-based country of The Flatlanders and the country-to-somewhat-bluegrass styles of Robin and Linda Williams, Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson and Riley Baugus the best of old time American banjo and song, this year’s visit to Bristol amounts to a caravan of Americana.
Take Cray. His refined style of blues led to his biggest hit, “Smoking Gun,” but as with everyone else on this Mountain Stage bill, hits do not define Cray’s career.
Instead and similar to The Flatlanders, quality of music blinds whatever eye they may have on commercial viability. Ironic to this show, radio largely ignores the included acts.
So call ’em underground. Label them alternative. But even with Australians Chambers and Nicholson, each act lends a different look at how America’s music of the mountains in some way helped shape them as artists. So goes the history of Mountain Stage.

ARTISTS’ BIOS
Artists include:
Robert Cray Band: For thirty-plus years, Robert Cray has laid down track after track of good time, uptown, low-down blues. He’s won five Grammys and been nominated for 11 more. He played the bassist in the fictional band Otis Day and the Knights in 1978’s movie “Animal House.” His latest album, “The Robert Cray Band: Live From Across The Pond,” is his first full-length concert CD.

The Flatlanders: Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely and Butch Hancock have been friends for almost 40 years, and members of The Flatlanders for nearly as long. Thirty-seven years after their first recording project together, The Flatlanders have released “Hills And Valleys.” 

Robin and Linda Williams: They have crisscrossed the continent (and beyond) for more than three decades, performing the tunes they love and a hearty blend of bluegrass, folk, old-time and acoustic country. They are instrumentalists and songwriters.

Riley Baugus: Riley Baugus represents the best of old time American banjo and song. Baugus was part of the Academy Award-winning film “Cold Mountain,” and a contributor to the 2008 Grammy award-winning Album of the Year, “Raising Sand,” the multimillion selling album by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. Baugus has taught at camps and festivals around the world and makes his home near Winston-Salem, N.C.

Kasey Chambers is an Australian alternative country singer-songwriter, daughter of steel guitar player Bill Chambers, sister of musician and producer Nash Chambers.
Joining her is husband Australian singer-songwriter Shane Nicholson.  Chambers has won many awards over the years, with the most recent being a nomination for she and Nicholson by CMAA as Group or Duo of the Year in 2009. 

IF YOU GO
What: Mountain Stage
Who: The Robert Cray Band, The Flatlanders, Robin and Linda Williams, and Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson
When: Aug. 16, 7 p.m.
Where: Paramount Center for the Arts, 518 State St., Bristol, Tenn.
Admission: $25
Info: (423) 274-8920
Web: http://www.mountainstage.org
Also: http://www.myspace.com/robertcray
Audio and video: http://www.new.music.yahoo.com/robert-cray/tracks/
Flatlanders audio: http://www.theflatlanders.com/music.html

TOM NETHERLAND is a freelance writer. He can be reached at .